Crime storeys: property owners battle bid-rigging between estate managers and contractors
Homeowners at dozens of estates are fighting what they perceive as bid-rigging between estate management and contractors, writes Elaine Yau
As with any organisation, meetings of building owners committees can turn very acrimonious when divergent personalities and interests clash.
Rarely, however, do these disagreements result in death threats and require police presence. But owners at the eight-block Mayfair Garden in Tsing Yi faced such intimidation last year when they tried to stop the awarding of a HK$160 million contract for renovation work on their 30-year-old residential estate.
Although they thought the renovations were necessary, the objectors felt the selection of consultant and contractors had not been fair and impartial - and those views did not go down well.
Management companies are supposed to oversee the projects. But are they also part of bid-rigging gangs?
"I received threatening text messages. The first SMS told me not to be so officious and to consider the safety of my family. The second warned that my leg would be broken if I stirred things up again," says one resident, who declined to be identified.
Such incidents have become distressingly common in the past three years because of loopholes in the Buildings Management Ordinance which have enabled contractors and estate management committees to foist hugely inflated renovation bills on residents. In one of the most extreme cases, renovations at Garden Vista in Sha Tin amounted to some HK$260 million, saddling each flat owner with invoices of up to HK$350,000. Outraged at bills that equalled a down payment on a small flat, three residents formed the Property Owners' Anti-bid Rigging Alliance. Their battle against collusion in maintenance and renovation work has since gathered support from dozens of other estates.
The seeds of these bid-rigging woes were sown with Operation Building Bright, a HK$3.5 billion government scheme set up in 2009 to subsidise repairs on an estimated 3,200 buildings that were more than 30 years old. Such work became mandatory following a 2011 amendment to the Buildings Ordinance, under which statutory notices could be issued to the owner corporations of old buildings, requiring them to carry out inspections and repairs every decade.
Renovations for ageing buildings grew quickly into a hugely lucrative business, particularly for unscrupulous contractors and estate management committees which connive to rig the tendering process.